Live-stock marker.



1P. B. STEVENS. LIVE STOCK. MARKER. APPLUATION FILIAD`MAB.. 4, 1910.^vr

976,225, 5 1am-,ema Nov,y 2331910.

Mum/Lto@ eX-A-T am,

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

FREDERICK R. STEVENS, OF GENEVA, NW YORK, ASSIGNOB T0 LIVE STOCK MARKER COMPANY, 0F GENEVA, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION 0F NEW YORK.

LIVE-STOCK MARKER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 22, 1910.

Application filed March 4, 1910. Serial No. 547,272.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK R. S're van s, a citizen of the United States, residing at Geneva, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Live-Stock Markers of which the following is a full, true, and exact specification as required by statute.

The invention is an improvement in the art of marking cattle, oultry and other live stock for pur oses of i entification, and rovides means or making a legible and a solutely permanent tattoo mark in the skin of the animal by a single, uickly performed operation not materially ifering from the operation of an ordinary rubber. hand-stamp nor requiring any greater skill or the application of any greater force on the part of the user.

The invention possesses further advan tages in that the application ofthe mark by such method is unaccom anied by pain to the animal or followed y sores or scabs and is not limited in the number or size oi its component characters, each of such characters being composed of continuous-line markings which are plainly legible immediately upon making the impression.

These and still other advantages which will be ap arent to those skilled in this art from the fldllowing description, are attained by the markino' instruments embodying the principles of the present invention.

Devlces hitherto proposed and to some extent exploited on the market for marking live stock fby introduction of ink or igment under the skin have been constructetlhargely on the principles of leather punching ,instruments and have been .composed of a series of small punches, usually Wire-brads, ur-

lranged in the outline of the desired character and held in a suitable metallic block or backing, the whole block, ith the points of the brads or punches projecting from it, being held in one of the jaws ot' '.1 pair of tongs or pliers so that by the application of sulcient force to the handles of the tongs, the punches can be pressed, into the nninials skin, thereby maklng a series ot holes corresponding to the outline of the character. The ink or pigment has then to be. rubbed into the open punch-holes, and thorough Working in of the. ink in this manner is iinperative since by the ensuing suppuratiou and the process of healing of the wounds, a

several punches be suitably separated from each other as otherwise the effect is to break down the skin, making a single large hole or lIeneral contusion instead of a series of holes forming the outline of the character, and this necessary spacin results in a mark or character composed o individual dots which are correspon ingly se arated and the imprinted character, for t is reason, cannot be made of a desirable smallness in size and at the same time be legible.

Frequently the extreme pointed ends of the bra-d punches are ground off to form square-ended points for increasing the clear opening of the holes left by them and thereb vaccommodating a larger quantity of ink. This obviously increases the ower required for making the punch-holes, nt in any case the resistance to the penetration is so great that a pliers or some equivalent power device is necessary and the consequent severe pain caused by the operation makes it necessary to confine or tie the animal securely before attempting to apply the mark.

The purposes of the present invention are accomplished by means of a. type block which may be of similar construction to the punch type blocks of the devices above referred to, but in which the blunt or square pointed and widely separated punches are supplanted by actual tattooing needles arranged closely together in the outline of the character to he imprinted, and limited as to the depth of their penetration as will b c later explained. These needles are voir tine and also very sharp so that they will enter the skin readily under a slight pressure such as can easily he exerted by the hund alone und without unusual telfort. und theyY ure usscmbled und held so close together that a lluid ink will he held upon them :unl in tho crevccs between them with suiiicient adherence to he carried into the. unimnls skin, thereby in effect constituting an automatic means for injecting the ink, entirely obviating the necessity of subsequently rubbing it in. I have discovered that the ink thus held on fine and closely related needles is carried into the skin in abundant quantity to make an immediately and also permanently legible mark Without any further treatment, the 'mark being an actual line mark by reason of the closeness of the needles, and I havel further discovered that when the depth of penetration of such closely arranged needles is limited lto a length that will enable them to penetrate the' epidermis and into but not through the Ydermis or so-called true skin, the puncturing of t the skin does not cause any appreciable pain to the animal so that special confinement or tying of the latter is rendered unnecessary, While the resultant mark, by being nearer the surface, is more sharply and cleanly defined. ,At the same time, the limited penetration ,of sharp, line needles under the moderate pressure needed cannot injure the subjacent flesh tissue and hence does not produce sores such as might, by suppurating, discharge the ink pigment or, by forming scabs and ultimately scars, obscure the clearness of outline. A mark of any number and size' of character that may be desired, is thus rendered possible to be imprinted upon the animal and on any part of its body that lmay, be preferred, since all'the pressure required can be obtained without the aid of tongs or pliers, the use of which is, of course, limited to parts of the animal that can be grasped 1n them.

The type blocks constructed on the principle above explained can be used singly, or several of'them can be used at once, in a suitable 'type case or holder, so that, as above stated, an inscription of any desired length or number ofcharacters can be simultaneously and uniformly imprinted inthe skin. Where pliers have been hitherto used with more than' a single punching type block, the objection has been present that the penetration nearest the fulcrum joint of the liers has been deeper than at the pointsarthest from the joint, which frequently results in producing an irregular' or uneven mark heavily blurred at one side and illegibl-y faint at the other. .T e new marking device possesses the furthe 'advantage that by lreason of its constru 'tion above explained, it can be safely' u 'd for marking young animals the dav or ho 1r of their birth, which is a matter ofA considerable importance to breeders Wishing to keep accurate records of fancy stock.

The accompanying drawings are intended 'to illustrate a lform of type block such as abo-ve described. A

Figure-1 shows, in perspective view, a single type yblock embodying this invention and on a greatly enlarged scale. The type block shown is the character L. Fig, 2 is a sectional view of the same block illustrating the needle points penetrated the full distance into the skin, the scale of this View being the same as in Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of several type blocks held in the holder and ready :t'or use, the scale beingabout the preferred actual size, although the diameters of the needles appear thicker than actually the case.

i The needlcs,indicated by A in the drawlngs, are of the same shape and style of point as an ordinary sewing needle, and like suoli needles are made ofltempcred steel. The diameter of each needle correspondscxactly to the size of sewing needles universally known and sold as No. l0, which measures about l9/1000ths of an inch at the thickest part. These needles are assembled side by side, as L"Fshown, according to the outline of the particular letter or character, and preferably with their bases or thickest parts in actual contact, or nearly so, and about 35 or more of them to the half inch, The closeness of arrangement leaves crevices or spaces bctween the pointed end poiti'ons of adjacent needles so narrow that a Huid ink will be held therein and on the needles by the elect of capillary action and with l sufficient tenacity of adherence to be carried by and with the needles into the skin, as above stated. reason of the ineness of the needles, their closeness together does not result in a general contusion of the skin as in the case of the punching pins of the prior devices, when such pins are'too closely assembled, but each tine needle-point makes its own fine hole, and when withdrawn leaves the ink properly deposited, the succession or series of ne markings thus made constituting a continuousluie ina-rk since the indlvldual punctures are'not visible except on very close inspection and the pigmentation is actually continuous. The'series of needles making up the mark or character are supported in a rectangular backing block B of lead or type'metal cast around their base portions, or by any other suitable means of support, and their sharp points project beyond the impression face of the `block or support only far enough to euablethein to reach through the outer skin or epidermis and project into the true skin,"

as' roughly illustrated by Fig. 2 wherein the close section lines indicato the epidermis and the separated lilies the dermis. Such limited depth of penetration amounts inthe actual device to l/Sth to l/lthof an inch and the lesser penetration, viz. l/lth inch,

is preferred since such depth is found to be adequate to reach the dermis of all domestic animals without. danger of pierciug'through the same and into the flesh, which, if deeply pierced, would tend to cause pain to the'animal as well as subsequent soreness; The fineness of the needles-also'contributes te4 the s lixces'sine'V owners, fetc'. in or .which :ein be found of .i2 1 -luto hebreeders-anddealersin ive stoek'fpertieularly .fancy stock, and 'facilities have-110i; been :afforded b the marking-devices heretofore V'employed 85 hieh',`. -asfaboye stated,' can bensedonly e, make' larger'size nnddotted-linemarks. e nipping-.i.11#.marbenessere that the-ears of anithe 1n-es allow-ink eceptacle. by means' ,mals" j'forfthe ears of cattle, are @fee-brush Soit-herbe .mehr @eine 4.f mledl .withtfidge of ribs@ .the inner su@ 9o- PbrtiOnSf-e' the'n.dlese11hifenf1l3f'wetted WhCh- Whenidsssctd'are'fndjtO-*be cmtherewith; the' inkheing held 1 x'1" pla e by. ,th'e: es efdlfof'tough', gristlf1 substance, 'most difelgxitgofcapillarityadefto-'theinneneS 311i cult; to .penetrate-wit any kind of punchi closenessas 'bove.fully-deseribedf-- neein'g tool',1Wht1 1i-Sharp orn'ot. These ribs 4 elle'-poin'tsflare-'the'" lirinly'-a ga'1I`1St-' rj-ridg'esg"lllioweyeig"are covered with skin 95 and 'in1;9 the' s lgjl -snrfaee and then`1ni1ne. -like the-rest-of the ear, and the skin can be diatelyf withdmwmzand thereupon .t-iieentirereadily' marked' witlith'e' marker of this '3 marking.opemtionls. eompleted.and a Ie vention, since the line of ty e blocks as- --'liably' Permalien lne-markrimpression 1S sembled,` for instance, as in Big; 3, can be 35 l eft on the animalfeorresponding' exactly to suitably rocked or tilted during the making fthe arrangementofthe needles.

thefown'rf breeder,

of the impression so as to conform to the ioo I simultaneously .j'itnprinted, a ty e case or Y that it caribe held in one hand with the ink of the animal is taken in the other hand and provided the needles forming the outline several characters are desired to be holder is use d, such as illustrate in Fig. 3, wherethe several blocks and the necessary spacers are :issernbled in their proper sequence in the receptacle vand clamped 1n lace by pressure exerted by the set screw ll The holder is rovided with a. handle like that of an or inary rubber stamp, so

applied, While the ear or a partof the skin the :two then preed together. In cases where the surface to be imprinted is a portion of the main integumentof the animals body, simply pressing the device against the. spot where the mark is wanted, without otherwise supporting the skin, is all that is required. The number of characters that can be thus simultaneously iurrinted on y the size of the holder, which con obviously be inode as large as desired. and the available space on the animalQ and in any cese. a full imboth ends or sides of which will be equally clear and legible. The size of the individual characters is likes-'isc u matter of choice.l

irregular surface and produce a uniform penetration and a uniform markin euery point. In skinunching tools o the kind requiring to be eld on the jaws of a pair of pliers or tongs, this manipulation is obvlously not ylossible and as a. consequence t such fact e marks imprinted thereby have to be confined to the spaces between the ridges; if punched forcibly through the ridges, blurring from the consequent masceration is inevitable, and the pain to the animal is of course intense.

I claim- 1. 'A tattoo marker for live stock consist- 115 ing of a plurality of iine needles forming the outline of the character to be imprinted on the animal and assembled in substantial contact whereby a suitable quantity of fluid ink will be held thereon and carried therewith into the skin, upon the penetration of said needles therein, combined with a support; or backing for said needles securing them in their said arrangement and limiting the penetration thereof to n depth suliicient onlyY to penetrate through the epidermis and into the true skin.

2. A tattoo marker for live stock consisting: of a plurality of fine sharp-pointed needles arranged according to the outline of the character to be imprinted on the animul and in substantial contact whereby a suitable quantity of fluid ink to make the desired mark will be held thereon by the effect of capillary :let-ion, combined with a support for said needles securing them in their said arrangement, the organization being such that all the said needles can be praised simultaneously and by hand into the animals skin, thereby carrying the ink into 10 the same.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification 1n tbe presence of two witmesses.

FREDERICK R. STEVENS. llfitnesses:

C. A. MAGKEY, FITZHUGH MCGREW. 

